PLEASE Turn The Spigot Off!

 

Forget turning the spigot off, someone stick a finger in the dam!  Boy have we had some rain this past week - the streets and fields and driveways and garages are flooding. I was three trips go down the drain before I was able to squeeze in today - cloudy, overcast, but no rain and no real wind to speak of.  I met Jeff and Cindy Patrick up at Old Town Bait and Tackle early and we made the run up and around to the Jolley River to fish a tide that had been going out for a couple of hours. The oysters still were not showing when we dropped the trolling motor and began to ease along the bank and toss float rigs and live shrimp and minnows up current to get good drifts along the marsh grass. It wasn't long before Cindy 'knocked the skunk off" with hungry Seatrout catch. We worked that "bank" good and both she and Jeff put a good handful of small but feisty Redfish in the boat. Finally, though, Cindy had a strong bite and it was taking drag. Cindy kept the pressure on, worked it out from the bank, then played it patiently to land a nice 22" Slot Redfish. All of these fish were a beautiful golden color. 

We finished fishing out that stretch then ran up the river to a large drainage and drifted it with floats.
Again, they caught a good handful of the feisty Reds. At one point something big boiled at the stern of the boat and shortly afterwards Cindy had another one of those drag ripping takes. The big fish took her from bow to stern, from starboard to port, and then it dug deep. Cindy worked it in, let it run, worked it in, let it run, then eventually brought to the net an oversized 27"+ Redfish, boy what a fish!  In addition to the Redfish, Jeff added a fat Seatrout to his catch total. 

We fished Snook Creek for a bit and added one Redfish, moved up and around and fished some exposed oysters with jigs where Jeff put another Red in the boat, then we made our way around to Bell River where we fished some docks. The bite had slowed considerably as the tide reached bottom but Jeff did manage to round out an Amelia Island Back Country Slam when he outsmarted a keeper sized Sheepshead and brought it to the net. And with that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

In Between The Storms

 

You've probably heard, "be careful what you wish for" - just a month ago we were begging for rain and now it seems someone forgot to turn the spigot off! And last night the forecast called for 47% chance of rain today so we thought we'd be getting wet if we fished, but we were going anyway! Luckily when I got up to get the boat ready the forecast had changed to just 15% chance and that held, we didn't get a drop while fishing. 

I had met David Prezzano and his fishing buddies Jay and Mike down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp with a live well full of shrimp, and before they got there, I had casted for a few dozen finger mullet. We ran over to the intercoastal, up it, and then turned into the Nassau and made our way up for a short bit before turning into the current on the first of an incoming tide. I noted that even though it had been only coming in for an hour, it was already covering the shell. All three anglers began tossing jigs and shrimp and in just a few minutes Mike "knocked the skunk off" when he hooked up and expertly landed a feisty Redfish. He followed that up with a golden colored Whiting catch. 

The trio of anglers caught a couple of small Seatrout, a Catfish, a couple of Jack Crevalle, one of which put up a good battle for David, then Jay had a strange "thump" and, Fish On!  Jay played it patiently, worked it to the boat and when it came to the surface, we saw that it was a big Flounder. He eased it slowly to the net and we brought to the boat a nice 18" Flounder, boy what a fish!

We then made our way down to Pumpkin Hill, fished a stretch with float rigs, then moved around to a point and drifted that. David had gotten a good cast that took his bait along the grass and BAM! Another Big Fish On!  He kept that tension on and worked in, let it run, worked it in and I was thinking "Redfish" but when David got it to the boat and netted, we saw that it was a 20.5" Gator Trout, boy what a fish!

Jay added one more keeper sized Seatrout to the box and although we had a few bites after that, we had no takers. That tide had gotten up to flood stage and the fish must have been up in the marsh. But we had caught some "picture worthy fish", had a few in the box, so as we headed back to the ramp, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.